Anna Valdez

Born in 1985 in Sacramento, Anna Valdez’s interest in cultural formation and collective consciousness began in her hometown. Exposed from a young age to a uniquely Californian cultural milieu, her proclivity for collecting and crafting a poignant and meaningful visual vocabulary took root during time spent sharing in the traditions and environments of people within her community. Her fascination with the ways in which cultural identities intersect lead her to pursue a career in sociocultural anthropology. It was on an archeological dig in Ireland that Valdez first discovered her skill for art making. Valdez was encouraged to keep a sketchbook of the site, creating scale drawings and maps. Visually reinterpreting these “abandoned sites” allowed Valdez to explore the connection between anthropological and artistic methods of cataloguing and record-keeping. Today, working across painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, ceramics and digital media, Valdez examines the relationship between material and cultural identity. Valdez incorporates articles found in domestic spaces such as plants, textiles, vessels and keepsakes into her work as a method of storytelling. Her colorful work invites the viewer to consider objects as emblematic of personal and collective experience, shifting between still life, landscape and portraiture. Valdez received her MFA in painting from Boston University in 2013. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the United States. Valdez’s work has been featured in Juxtapoz Magazine and New American Paintings. Her work has recently been exhibited at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The North Carolina Museum of Art, The New Britain Museum of American Art , Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco and New York, David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, 1969 Gallery and The Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York City, and the Dianne Witte Gallery in Toronto.